Info Center is a collection of databases and directories designed to let readers dig deeper into the news and get a richer understanding of their community. Check here regularly for new information and updates to existing databases.

Some of what you learn here may surprise or concern you -- and prompt you to comment or call us to investigate. Send suggestions or comments to the Info Center team.

Visit the Data Geek blog, where Gazette data journalist Perry Swanson dives into data that reveal insights about how people live in the Pikes Peak region. Recent headlines:

• Homes with cell phones nearly double
• Poverty strikes hard in some area school districts
• Compact-city policies hurt personal freedom, study says
• Teacher pay raises slightly lower than average
• Teacher salaries jump 26 percent from 1998 to 2007

The government belongs to you. The law says so. Much of the material on this page is a result of Gazette journalists exercising their legal rights to closely monitor what the government is doing, and then making the information available to everyone.

But laws mandating government transparency don't belong only to journalists. They belong to everyone, including you. If you want to know how the government is spending your money, or whom it's holding in jail, or how lawmakers voted on a controversial issue, the information is yours for the asking.

We'll update this page during summer 2009 with briefings on the law and advice on how to access government information.

In the meantime, here are links to organizations that fight for your right to know.

National Freedom of Information Coalition
Open The Government
Center for Responsive Politics
Federation of American Scientists